At The Crossroads, Part 1: A Tale Of Two Epidemics
One infectious disease – Ebola – is dominating the headlines now. But there’s another that affects far more people around the world, including here in the U.S. Hepatitis C infects an estimated five...
View ArticleOpioid Addiction Crisis Fuels Another: Hep C
Addiction usually leaves a wake of chaos, and all kinds of casualties - marriages, jobs, health. Most tragically, the current crisis of opioid addiction (to prescription painkillers and heroin) in...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 2: Finding Hep C Infections Before It's Too Late
Hepatitis C infects an estimated five million Americans, nearly 20-thousand Rhode Islanders among them. And most of them don’t know it. But many are about to find out. It takes about 20 years for most...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 3: As Old Hep C Treatment Fades Out, New Drugs Stoke...
In just a few weeks, another pharmaceutical company will likely win FDA approval for a new drug to cure hepatitis C. That makes three breakthrough medications hitting the market in less than a year....
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 4: New Hep C Drugs Promise A Cure, For A Big Price
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Since then, people with hepatitis C have had limited – and not very effective – options for treatment. Until now....
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: How Will Medicare Grapple With Hep C?
My recent story about the high cost of new hepatitis C treatments focused on the difficulty of deciding who gets these new drugs now and who has to wait. That's because, while new drugs like Sovaldi...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: Hepatitis C Resources In RI
For the past several weeks we've been airing stories from our series, "At the Crossroads: The rise of hepatitis C and the fight to stop it." Maybe you've been wondering, hey, should I get tested? Where...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 5: The Uncomfortable Math Of Hep C Treatment
What’s the price of a human life? Many of us would say each life is priceless. But health economists sometimes have a number in mind. Want to know what that number is? In this part of our series “At...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 6: Veterans Harder Hit By Hep C
In our ongoing series about hepatitis C, we look now at one of the hardest hit populations: veterans. Hep C is three times more prevalent among vets than in the general population. The Veterans Health...
View ArticleAgency Sues Over Hep C Drug Price; Researchers Compare Effectiveness
No surprise here: the Philadelphia Transportation Authority is suing Gilead, maker of the expensive new hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, over the cost of those drugs. A course of Sovaldi, not...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 7: Behind Bars, Hep C Takes A Toll On Inmates, And...
Rhode Island’s prisons are grappling with a dilemma. Hundreds of inmates have hepatitis C. New drugs can cure it. But they’re so expensive the department of corrections can’t afford them for every...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: Despite More Cases, Funding For Hep C Pales Next To HIV
A couple of years ago, I read an issue brief written by Brad Brockmann with the Rhode Island Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights. The brief, called "Hepatitis C: Threat and Opportunity,"...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: CVS Inks Exclusive Deal With Gilead For Hep C Drugs
Woonsocket-based pharmacy giant CVS has signed a deal with drug maker Gilead to offer its hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, exclusively, for treating hepatitis C. The deal covers patients enrolled...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads, Part 8: Fueled By Opioid Abuse, New Hep C Infections Rise
In 2014, hundreds of Rhode Islanders died from accidental drug overdoses. Thousands more remain addicted to prescription painkillers and heroin. For those who inject the drugs, there’s another risk:...
View ArticleMap: Where To Find Free Or Low-Cost Hepatitis C Testing
It's sinister, this virus: hepatitis C can live in the body for decades before causing any noticeable symptoms. By then, the symptoms could be serious: at the worst, cirrhosis or liver cancer. Most...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: One-Hour Special
We're wrapping up our months-long series about one of the greatest public health challenges facing Rhode Island: hepatitis C. Listen online or download our one-hour special: "At the Crossroads: The...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: The Road Ahead For Hep C
Our months-long series about hepatitis C, "At the Crossroads: The Rise of Hepatitis C and the Fight to Stop It," has officially come to an end. We had a great public forum ("Hepatitis C: Cost, Cure,...
View ArticleAt The Crossroads: Hepatitis C On The Rise And The Fight To Stop It
A multimedia series about one of the greatest public health challenges of a generation Hepatitis C infects an estimated five million Americans, though most of them don’t know it. But deaths from...
View ArticleSecond State Sued Over Hepatitis C Medication Access
Medicaid patients in Washington state (a similar suit is underway in Indiana) have sued the state's Medicaid agency claiming they were denied treatment for hepatitis C because of the high cost of the...
View ArticleForum: Seizing the Moment to End HepC
* * * S A V E T H E D A T E ! * * *Seizing the Moment to End Hepatitis C:A Discussion with Experts and AdvocatesThursday, November 17, 2016, 6 PM - 7:30 PMBrown University School of Public Health121 S....
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